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A five-member election committee has been interviewing applicants for the post this year, since Steve Raborn, who served as Tarrant County’s elections administrator from 2006 until earlier this year, left to accept a job with Votec, a San Diego-based vendor of election-related technology.

Tarrant County Tax Assessor-Collector Ron Wright, who serves on the committee, said Phillips comes highly recommended.

“He has an excellent track record in Denton,” Wright said. “Everybody up there raves about him.

“I think he’s going to do an outstanding job for us.”

The five-member Tarrant County Elections Commission that hired Phillips is made up of Wright, County Judge Glen Whitley, County Clerk Mary Louise Garcia, Republican Party Chair Jennifer Hall and Democratic Party Chair Deborah Peoples.

Phillips, from Louisiana, began college at Louisiana State University and graduated from Texas Woman’s University with a bachelor degree in 1999.

A longtime employee for Denton County, Phillips held a variety of posts before becoming a certified elections/registration administrator in 2008 and Denton County Elections Administrator in December 2009.

Phillips, who will be paid $120,000, said Denton and Tarrant counties use the same type of voting equipment and voter registration software, which should make his switch in jobs a little easier.

He will have a couple of months to settle in before the Nov. 4 general election.

Even though Tarrant County has a much bigger elections office than Denton County, local officials say Phillips is up to the challenge.

“We are a big county and it is a big job,” Wright said. “But I think he’s up to the task.”